Educating Engineering Students to Succeed in a Global Workplace

Vukica Jovanovic; Thomas H. DeAgostino; M. Brian Thomas; R. Thomas Trusty

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Towards Global Competency for Engineering Education
Tagged Division: International
Page Count: 17
Page Numbers: 25.490.1 - 25.490.17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21248
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21248
Download Count: 475

Paper Authors

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Vukica Jovanovic Trine University orcid.org/0000-0002-8626-903X

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Vukica Jovanovic, Ph.D., began her academic career in 2001 when she graduated with her dipl.ing.-M.S. degree at University of Novi Sad, majoring in industrial engineering and focusing on mechatronics, robotics, and automation. She lectured various courses at departments of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mechatronics from 2001 until 2006. She was an active member of a European organizing committee of the student robotic contest Eurobot and chief of the Eurobot organizing committee of the Serbian student national competition in robotics. In the summer of 2002, she had an internship in aircraft manufacturing company Aernnova Aerospace, Spain, where she worked in assembly of aircraft wings. Jovanovic subsequently continued to work towards her doctorate at Purdue University, Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology in Aug. 2006, as a Graduate Research Assistant in Product Lifecycle Management Centre of Excellence Laboratory. As a graduate student, she was involved in the following projects: Boeing PLM Certificate Program, Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation Project: Product Lifecycle Management Curriculum Modules, National Science Foundation project: Midwest Coalition for Comprehensive Design Education, and Department of Labor-funded project: Development of Integrated Digital Manufacturing Curriculum. She was also lecturing six different courses in the areas of mechanical engineering technology and computer graphics technology. She published chapters in three books, three journal articles, and presented 31 conference papers. Her dissertation research focused on environmental compliance, product lifecycle management, and engineering design of mechatronic products. She is working at the Design Engineering Technology Department at Trine University, where she teaches courses related to engineering graphics and design.

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Thomas H. DeAgostino Trine University

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After graduating from Michigan Technological University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1984, Thomas H. DeAgostino began his career as an Automotive Product Engineer working at Ford Motor Company’s Heavy Truck Division. He held various product engineering positions before settling on structural and finite element analysis as his engineering passion. In 1988, he transferred to Ford’s Engine Engineering Division, performing finite element analysis on various engine components. In 1991, he left Ford Motor Company’s Engine Division for General Motors’ newly forming Powertrain Division, to work on automatic transmission torque converters. While at GM, he obtained his M.S. in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1995. After holding various positions in product engineering at GM, he turned to teaching mathematics at Jackson (Mich.) Community College in 2007, and finally accepted his current position at Trine University in 2009 as Assistant Professor of design engineering technology. He currently teaches statics, mechanics of materials, machine design, and the senior design capstone sequence. His research interests include integration of industry and academia and utilization of project-based learning to enhance the applicability of learning.

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M. Brian Thomas P.E. Trine University

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R. Thomas Trusty II Trine University

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Abstract

Educating Engineering Students to Succeed in a Global WorkplaceRecent technological and economic developments have led to a working environment thatincludes many activities with a global component. Students who graduate in engineering andtechnology programs have to acquire new set of skills that would help them to be more workready for a global environment. They may be working for engineering consulting firm or in acompany with a globalized production. Either way, they will need to work on some sort of aproject that will include people who are not located in the same country. Therefore, initializingclasses that would include study abroad programs or activities that include collaborativeengineering and virtual teamwork would contribute to their abilities to be more work readygraduates. In this way, students can visit a foreign country, learn about different culture andvisit some foreign companies and learn how they operate through a field-based learningexperience. They will be able to see contrasts and discover some new ways of doing things.With this kind of a carefully designed course, they would be able to access higher levels oflearning that would include assessing pro’s and con’s of different engineering environments fora purpose of creating new recommendations for improvement of some engineering processesin their future company. They can also examine different perspectives of collaborativeengineering from a global viewpoint and gain knowledge of how culture influences globalengineering solutions. For example, if they will be in charge of managing or working in globalteams, they will be better prepared to do these tasks and will be better with managing peoplethat work on a same project that are not necessarily from the same cultures. These kinds ofcourses will have two components, a formal one that would be based on a work that studentswill do as a part of a class, but also all the informal activities that will take place outside theclassroom that would prepare students to adapt into a foreign country and culture. This paperwill focus on planning of one such course for engineering and technology students to gain theirhands-on experiences that lead to real-world, skill-based knowledge from a global perspective.

Citation
Format

Jovanovic, V., & DeAgostino, T. H., & Thomas, M. B., & Trusty, R. T. (2012, June), Educating Engineering Students to Succeed in a Global Workplace Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21248

TY - CPAPER
AB - Educating Engineering Students to Succeed in a Global WorkplaceRecent technological and economic developments have led to a working environment thatincludes many activities with a global component. Students who graduate in engineering andtechnology programs have to acquire new set of skills that would help them to be more workready for a global environment. They may be working for engineering consulting firm or in acompany with a globalized production. Either way, they will need to work on some sort of aproject that will include people who are not located in the same country. Therefore, initializingclasses that would include study abroad programs or activities that include collaborativeengineering and virtual teamwork would contribute to their abilities to be more work readygraduates. In this way, students can visit a foreign country, learn about different culture andvisit some foreign companies and learn how they operate through a field-based learningexperience. They will be able to see contrasts and discover some new ways of doing things.With this kind of a carefully designed course, they would be able to access higher levels oflearning that would include assessing pro’s and con’s of different engineering environments fora purpose of creating new recommendations for improvement of some engineering processesin their future company. They can also examine different perspectives of collaborativeengineering from a global viewpoint and gain knowledge of how culture influences globalengineering solutions. For example, if they will be in charge of managing or working in globalteams, they will be better prepared to do these tasks and will be better with managing peoplethat work on a same project that are not necessarily from the same cultures. These kinds ofcourses will have two components, a formal one that would be based on a work that studentswill do as a part of a class, but also all the informal activities that will take place outside theclassroom that would prepare students to adapt into a foreign country and culture. This paperwill focus on planning of one such course for engineering and technology students to gain theirhands-on experiences that lead to real-world, skill-based knowledge from a global perspective.
AU - Vukica Jovanovic
AU - Thomas H. DeAgostino
AU - M. Brian Thomas P.E.
AU - R. Thomas Trusty II
CY - San Antonio, Texas
DA - 2012/06/10
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Educating Engineering Students to Succeed in a Global Workplace
UR - https://peer.asee.org/21248
DO - 10.18260/1-2--21248
ER -